The present invention relates to lap creels comprising rod shaped carrier elements which together with ring shaped fixing or holding elements form a circular cage. The carrier elements protrude radially beyond the holding elements.
For taking up a thread type textile material, different types of lap creels are known in the art which are constructed of rod shaped carrier elements. These carrier elements extend in parallel to the central axis of the lap creel. The carrier elements extend radially outwardly to a common cylinder surface and are connected only to one so-called end ring.
In one particular embodiment of such a prior art lap creel the end ring comprises perforations which are substantially adapted to the cross section of the carrier elements. The number of the perforations corresponds to the number of the carrier elements so that the lap creels may be nested one within another in a coaxial fashion. In addition to the end ring there are arranged so-called support rings which are distributed along the height or length of the carrier elements, whereby neighboring lap creels may be nested within each other only to a limited extent. The nesting is limited because the ends of the carrier elements of one lap creel positioned opposite the end ring, butt against the support ring located closest to the end ring of the other lap creel.
However, this type of arrangement has the advantage that the lap creels nested within each other require less space while being transported and during storage. An additional advantage is seen in that these lap creels permit a uniform densification of the thread type textile goods because the measure or extent by which one lap creel may be pushed into a neighboring lap creel is definitely limited. However, the disadvantage is seen in that this type of structure does not have a sufficient inherent stiffness unless the lap creel is manufactured of a high strength material. The stiffness cannot be increased by using more support rings since the number of such rings must be limited in favor of avoiding the hindrance of the flow of treatment media as much as possible. Thus, the increasing of the number of support rings for improving the inherent stiffness is subject to limitation. An even more important disadvantage of the known construction is seen in that it is not possible to form a freely accessible thread reserve on the lap creel. Such a thread reserve or supply is used to connect ahead of time, the end of the thread of one winding with the beginning of the thread of another winding. A thread supply cannot be formed at one end of the prior art lap creel because the end ring with its perforations is in the way. A thread reserve applied at the opposite end would slide off without any hindrance even if the ends of the carrier elements would not be rounded off.